Colonel Van Vliet on the Katyn massacre

[As a prisoner of war, Colonel Van Vliet was taken to the site of
the Katyn massacre in the spring of 1943. He seems to have been very
well connected, with easy access to General Lawton Collins upon his
release in 1945, and staying as a guest of another general in Paris.
Nevertheless, his report to General Clayton Bissell was classified
Top Secret and hidden away so thoroughly that it has never surfaced.
In 1950, at the U.S. Army's request, he tried to recreate that report.
It would be included in the 1952 Findings of the U.S. Congress's
investigation of the Katyn massacre. Note that the colonel, like
most people at the time, knew only of the approximately 4500 bodies
buried in the Katyn Forest site, not of the much larger atrocity
encompassing at least three other sites in the Soviet Union. I have
reproduced his typewritten report as accurately as possible, and
if I found it necessary to add something, I enclosed it in square
brackets [like this]. -- Dan Ford]

2. Since five years have elapsed
since I made the first report to Maj Gen [Clayton] Bissell, this
report will have to omit some details such as names which I have
forgotten. In order to assist in locating my original report here
are the circumstances under which it was made:

On 22 May 1945 Gen Bissell discussed the case with me
alone in his private office in the Pentagon for about 20 minutes.
He decided that it was important and directed his civilian female
assistant ... to go with me to closed room across the hall and
take dictation. I dictated my report, she typed it up and
we added the photographs as inclosures. The General read the
finished report, directed that it be marked "Top Secret" and
filed. He then dictated the letter
directing me to silence, and had me sign a copy of it in
his presence. He explained the
importance of my remaining silent, gave me my copy of the letter
and thanked me.

3. Narrative: I was a prisoner of war
at Oflag IX/AZ in Rotenburg, Germariy in April, 1943. It was
primarily a British Officers prison camp headed by Brigadier
[Claude] Nicholson (who had been the defender of CALAIS [in May
1940]). I was the senior of the 125 (approx) American officers in
the camp. At this time the German press began a big splurge on
the KATYN case. So also did the German radio....

Hauptman HEYL the German camp
commander, told Brig Nicholson and me that he had orders to send
two American officers and 1 Brit. officer to the RR station at
KASSEL Germany where they would be met by British Maj Gen
[Victor] FORTUNE (from another nearby POW camp. He had commanded
the Brit [51st Higland] Div in France)

Hauptman Heyl stated that I would be
one of the two U.S. officers; that I would select the other one;
that together with other Allied prisoners we would be a "Board of
Inquiry" to investigate the Katyn Massare. I flatly refused to
have any part of it. Brig. Nicholson backed me up on this and
together we wrote a letter to the Swiss Protecting Power which
stated that no officers from the camp wonld make any visit to
Katyn or make any investigation, or express any opmion. That if
we were forced to go it would be only as individual prisoners
under guard and against our protest.....

Our protest did no good. Using armed
guards, the Germans took me and Capt Donald Stewart, FA (regular
army) to the Kassel RR station where they expected to meet Maj
Gen Fortune. He did not arrive, to the surprise of the German
guards. We were tthen taken to Berlin and jailed in an Arbeits
Kommmdo (sp?) -- a building overlooking the Spree River, housing
PWs of several nationalites who were performing labor in Berlin.

In this jail we met several U.S.
soldiers who had been brought from a nearby PW camp for the same
reason that we had. One of these was a CPL TAUSSIG who had been
in the same regiment with me for the invasion of ALGIERS by the
168th Inf. There were also several british soldiers and a british
civilian (internee) as well as LT COL STEVENSON (british, South
African, Sig corp) and a british captain, medical corps, whose
name I cannot now remember. In my opinion these men were
actually what they appeared to be and did not include any
"plants". We prisoners of war were very careful in our efforts to
make certain identification.

Soon we were taken, one by one, to
the jail office where we were interviewed by several German staff
officers and some civilian officials who appeared to be from both
the foreign office and the propaganda ministry. The procedure
appeared about the same for all of us. "Since you have voluntered
to investigate this terrible Katyn atrocity we are taking you to
the scene. You will of course sign a parole not to escape."
[He tells of vigorous protests by the prisoners.] ...Finally they
announced that since we
wouldnt give our paroles they would have to place guards on the
airplane with us. This meant that some prisoners would not make
the trip, to make room for the guards. The American soldiers were
left back.

Lt Col Stevenson was the senior in
the group. We cautioned the entire group to do no talking, to
give no indications of opinion, and not to cooperate in any way
with the Germans. All agreed. It was evident to all of us that we
were involved in an international mess with terrific political
implications.

An english-speaking german captain
was placed in charge of the group together with an english
speaking Sonderfuhrer (sp?) who gave the name of Von Johnson,
spoke idiomatic American, and said he had attended school at Rice
in the USA.

We were flown from Templehof to
Smolensk about the 6th of May, 1943. At that time Smolensk was
about 60 miles from the front and appeared to contain only
garrison troops. We were billeted in some of the remaining intact
buildings, of which there were only a few.....

A German Lt (spoke no English)
appeared from the group that was in charge of operations at the
scene of the Mass Graves in KATYN Forest. He acted as our guide.
We were driven to the site where there was a gate, guarded by
young soldiers in Polish uniforms.
A sickly-sweet odor of
decaying bodies was everywhere. At the graves it was nearly
overpowering. There were several graves. Professor Herr Doktor
BUTZ (BOOTZ?) a German expert in forensic medecin was present
together with other technicians. Several Polish Red Cross workers
were present. Civilian labor was being used to remove bodies
from the graves. Each body was searched very carefully, examined,
identified, and reburied in a nearby mass grave whicn was to
become a national shrine with suitable monuments. The articles
removed from each body were placed in a large manilla envelope
for safekeeping. The search of the bodies was very thorough,
including removal of shoes or boots where it was possible.
(sometimes the whole leg from the knee down came off with the
boot) The examiners wore rubber aprons and rubber gloves. A
typist was present recording the findings on each body.

We followed our guide right into each
of the graves--stepping on bodies that were piled like cord wood,
face down usually, to a depth of about 5 to 7 bodies covered with
about 5 feet of earth. About 300 bodies were laid out beside one
of the graves. These all had their hands tied behind them with
cord. The rest appeared not to have been tied. All bodies had a bullet hole in tne back of head
near the neck with the exit wound of the bullet being in the
forehead or front upper part of the skull.